Khvostov, Aleksei Nikolaevich

Born 1872; died 1918. Russian state figure. Nephew of A. A. Khvostov.

Khvostov, who was a graduate of the Alexandrovskii Lycée, owned land in Orel Province. In 1906 he became governor of Vologda Province, and from 1910 to 1912 he was governor of Nizhny Novgorod Province. A member of the Black Hundreds, he was chairman of the right-wing fraction in the Fourth State Duma.

Khvostov was minister of the interior from Sept. 26, 1915, until Mar. 3, 1916. With the help of the assistant minister S. P. Beletskii, Khvostov intensified police surveillance of left-wing parties and ruthlessly suppressed the workers’, peasants’, and national liberation movements. Under his direction, approximately 1.5 million rubles from the state treasury were spent to subsidize monarchist organizations and bribe the press. In accordance with a decree of the Council of People’s Commissars of Sept. 5, 1918, Khvostov was shot.